How to stop tears and 7 other great body tricks

Trying to stop yourself from crying usually only makes the situation worse, and the same goes for fainting, hiccups and dreaded motion sickness, but who hasn’t found themselves in a situation where maintaining control is an absolute must?

The next time your body starts to rebel, try one of these tricks from Madonna Behen and company at Yahoo, and hopefully you can hold off until you find some refuge.

Hold back tears

If you’re tearing up at an inappropriate moment, just clear your throat. “It interrupts the mechanism in the nasal passage and larynx that controls crying,” says Rebecca Nagy, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based meditation expert. Plus, after you clear your throat, you tend to swallow. This lifts your tongue to the roof of your mouth, which blocks the soft palate, making you unable to cry…

Break a fainting spell

Cross your legs, squeeze your thighs, and contract your abs. You can feel faint when your blood pressure drops and blood pools in your extremities. By tensing muscles, you keep your BP up and divert blood back to your heart and brain. University of Amsterdam researchers who tested muscle-tightening exercises found that they reduced the risk of passing out by 30 percent.